Lemon and passionfruit tart( SERVES 8 )

You will love this tart - it's so incredibly easy. Just buy sweet short pastry from the supermarket, roll out and place in your flan tin and bake blind. "Baking blind" is simply placing baking paper into the base of the pastry-lined tin and weighting it down with pie weights, dry beans or rice on top of the paper. Bake until lightly browned in a good hot oven - often for only 10 minutes - before removing the paper carefully, complete with the weights or beans or rice. Serve this tart with lightly whipped cream mixed with natural yoghurt and add a little lemon zest and lemon curd to flavour the cream. only just a hint though, as the tart is full flavoured and the cream/yoghurt makes a zingy contrast. Cook this on the day of your dinner party, as it's best served at room temperature a few hours after you have made it. Do not serve warm or hot. This recipe was kindly given to us by Sue Walton, part-owner of Verde Cafedeli. It's one of the most popular sweet treats in her cabinet display.

Ingredients

Directions

To make the pastry base, line a narrow, loose-bottomed tart tray with a circle of baking paper, then two sheets of sweet crust pastry. Rest it in the fridge for an hour then bake it blind, placing it in a 180C fan bake oven for 10 minutes. or until lightly browned.

To prepare the filling, preheat the oven to 160C fan bake. Beat together the first five ingredients until smooth and pour into the precooked pastry base.

Fan bake for 35 minutes until just set and still a bit wobbly in the centre.

Serve as is or dust generously with icing sugar and caramelise the top quickly or serve with a drizzle of passion fruit syrup. This can be served warm or cold.

Tips

For a deeper tart, Sue uses a high-sided tin with a loose bottom and doubles the filling. This will take 60 to 80 minutes to cook.

Sue uses a Barker's of Geraldine product, Lemon Passionfruit Patisserie Filling or you could also use ¾ cup of Barker's Passionfruit Curd. Just add a little passionfruit pulp to the mix to increase the acidity, if you have passionfruit pulp or syrup to hand.

Christmas entertaining

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